Boulder Dash Construction Kit
Alternative title: Boulder Dash IV
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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Rockford the Ant returns in another Boulder Dash adventure contains 15 new levels, in addition to the easy-to-use game editor. Players can build, save, and play their own levels. The software includes a feature to sequence your levels on a separate game disk.

All of the elements and hazards from the previous Boulder Dash outings are back: The fireflies, butterflies, growing amoebas, enchanted walls, and of course, the boulders. New features include titanium (indestructible) walls, growing walls, and slime that allows boulders and diamonds to drop through it at a varying rate.

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Description from the packaging:

More thrills for Boulder Dash fanatics. And now with the Construction Kit, you can create your own den of doom. Or, for a truly riveting experience, you can mine for diamonds in one of the pre-constructed games.

We've got to warn you. The place is gnarly. The amoebas are still here. They stray boulders. The nasty fireflies. The whole rotten mess. You could eat it bad on this one, pal.

They say it's the greatest underground movement in known times. Think of all those diamonds down there. But remember, what goes down does not necessarily come back up...

With the toolkit you see on the right hand of the screen, you'll have the power to create an endless number of caves. So you can play as hard or as wimplike as you prefer.

Once you've constructed your subterranean nightmare, you'll encounter beings that explode, suffocate, and- this'll psyche you- grow to humongous proportions. Nice knowing you.

For a killer game, try groping your way through one of the 15 pre-existing caves.

You've got to be fast. But finding the escape tunnel takes smarts, too. Planning, you know? There's five levels of difficulty. But you wouldn't care about the first four now, would you?

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Review

Of all the 'construction kit' programs (pinball, adventure, arcade, etc.) Boulderdash Construction Kit is the most entertaining. The designing possibilities are endless! Not only can you construct caves with the original elements (boulders -duh-, fireflies, butterflies, diamonds, etc.) but you can adjust the parameters of those elements as well, like changing their colour. Making clever use of those colours adds a whole new dimension to the original Boulder Dash idea; you can now make caves that are really difficult to solve! 

It's a pity, though, you can't edit the original Boulder Dash 1 and 2 caves, but that is just a minor point that can safely be dismissed ('though I certainly would have liked the feature). 

Boulder Dash Construction Kit is real value for money. I know, it's another safe statement since the game is not for sale anymore, but it would be if it was! In fact, if some clever company would be so smart as to release this game for PC or gameconsole, I would certainly buy it. They wouldn't even have to change the graphics, since anyone likely to buy this game would also like the original graphics and sounds thank you very much! 

I've spent weeks designing caves that were nearly impossible to solve, only to find out I couldn't compile them to a stand-alone game (so you wouldn't need BDCK to play them). On the other hand; I never had the manual (yes, I had an illegal copy, I admit it) so there might as well be such a feature, only I never found it... 

It's the most fun you can have in 2D, in my opinion (for the most fun in 3D I don't need a computer).


http://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=http%3A//www.lemon64.com/reviews/
